The Rogue One Trailer is Out and IT’S LIT, FAM

Late last night, during NBC’s Summer Olympics broadcast, the first full trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story made its debut, and… *rap air horn sounds three times* it’s lit, fam.

After a not-as-promising teaser and rumors of messy reshoot drama, the new trailer should calm the nerves of the Galaxy Far, Far, Away faithful, as it promises epic musical treatment, action, drama, a weird Forest Whittaker character, oh, and a quick glimpse at that Luke guy’s father:

Rogue One, which is the first of several planned “anthology” films set in the Star Wars universe, stars Felicity Jones as the renegade hero, Diego Luna as the Poe Dameron surrogate, Ben Mendelsohn as a villain, and the aforementioned Mr. Whittaker just straight-up going for it in whatever his mysterious role turns out to be.

Look at that guy. That is a man who is fucking going for it. It was great seeing character actors like Samuel L. Jackson and Liam Neeson show up in the Star Wars universe, but Whittaker’s performance here looks like it could out-ham both of them combined. I love it.

The movie’s director is Gareth Edwards, who helmed the Godzilla reboot back in 2014, which I wasn’t a huge fan of by any means, but if this latest trailer is any indication, this could be a solid rebound.

And the trailer doesn’t even show an extended glimpse at the character played by Riz Ahmed, who is perfection right now on HBO’s limited series, The Night Of. Riz is blowing up right now, as he’s also started a rap group–under the moniker Riz MC– called Swet Shop Boys, joined by Heems, formerly of Das Racist. And their music is actually cool, too.

The trailer is accompanied by more fun rumors from George Lucas’ Universe: apparently Donald Glover—known as Childish Gambino to many—is being eyed for the role of Young Lando in Phil Miller and Chris Lord’s untitled Han Solo anthology film as well.

After this peek, Rogue One is back on the must-see list. And, at the very least, it’s December 16 release will help to bide the time before Episode VIII is released almost exactly a year later, on December 17th, 2017.

Evan is an associate editor for Brooklyn Magazine. He writes about anything and everything related to pop culture, and doesn't particularly think about anything else. Follow him on Twitter at @EvanRomano.